villagelogs | 037-040 » the reason for time

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central Mathias
WHEN: Day 037-040
WHAT: The dead return and the living wake to changes within Mathias Township.
WARNINGS: Some explicit sexual content in threads. (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Kammarheit "Sleep after Toyle, Port after Stormie Seas"

DAY 037
THE DEAD RETURN
“The only reason for time is so that everything
doesn't happen at once.” —Albert Einstein
The dead return to Mathias forever changed by their experiences. Waking along the beach, near the tree line, or among the graves, they will find that their bodies are not as they remember them. They are whole again and not torn to shreds by the shadow creatures that cannot be described, but they are also not as they were before the Hunt. These residents will find, so strangely, that their bodies are in the physical state in which they first arrived in Mathias — any injuries or recovery they have made since their initial arrival no longer exists, as if their time in Mathias has simply been a horrible nightmare. Except they all now carry a last reminder of the Hunt with them: spiderweb-thin healed scars marking their injuries from the Hunt. Those who were injured by fire in the other realm also carry those burns with them.

The dead are not the only things that have returned to Mathias. Inexplicably, fall is back, with the temperature finally reaching above freezing and snow falling from trees to reveal beautiful autumnal colors. As the sun rises higher in the lightly cloudy sky and the day warms, the snow begins rapidly melting, puddles growing in the slowly revealed grass and little rivers forming in the streets. And with that snow comes the frozen blood from the deaths to the Hunt, tinting the street river on Phillips Drive a sickening shade of red.

Another oddity that residents will notice: houses with broken windows from the encounter with the fog on Day 015 have now been completely repaired, though any boards put in place are still there somehow. A small bit of good news, at least? And truly, how kind of Mathias to clean up its own mess.

Finally, alcohol is back. Enjoy in moderation, friends, for more will not be arriving the following morning.

THE NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake up on the beach near The Grey Gull. It's quite chilly out with their wet clothes, but surely there's something to help warm them inside the restaurant. Indeed, their timing is perfect, for alcohol has finally returned to Mathias Township — and not just the cowboys' homemade moonshine.

DAY 038-039
THE CHANGE OF SEASON
The continued warm weather proves that the unseasonable shift of the previous day was not merely a fluke. Once again, the sun rises and brings with it a temperature that feels almost spring-like, save for the fact that each day there seem to be more and more leaves on the trees in hues of red and orange. For those who have been in Mathias for some time, this new type of weird may be almost normal at this point, but newer arrivals will likely find it quite odd.

The gently trickling river running along Phillips Drive is still somewhat pink in color as the snow continues to melt and refreeze each night. By Day 040, the bloody snow will finally be gone completely, though the relief will be... short-lived.

DAY 040
THE BLINDING WHITE
In the late morning of Day 040, when the sun is visible through patchy greyish clouds, the fog sweeps into town like a like a tidal wave. It moves in quickly and without warning, not from the waterfront but the forest, cascading through every street in a thick wave of white. Rather than a soft blanket enveloping the town, it is a heavy weight pressing down, blotting out the sky in a way that almost feels suffocating, for none can see further than their outstretch hand.

Those outside when it rolls in are left wandering blind, stumbling toward shelter as you're unable to even see your feet beneath you, let alone any obstacles in your path. Perhaps you call out for help, hoping for another voice to guide you toward shelter or simply another living soul. Or perhaps you were lucky enough to already be inside when the fog descended, quickly closing doors and windows to keep it from creeping in.

Unlike the last time the fog swept into the town, residents who encounter it are not immediately killed. Instead, they are simply disoriented, possibly losing their sense of time and place, and it is only after prolonged exposure that they will begin to feel off. A sense of being ill will cling to them if they are in the fog for too long, including dizziness, lightheadedness, or nausea — the time it takes to manifest varies from person to person, as does the duration it will last after leaving the fog.

By nightfall, the fog still has not dissipated.

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— THE WEATHER conditions are fairly typical for late fall: chilly "sweater weather" days and nights that can dip just below freezing. You don't want to be outside without a coat, but it won't kill anyone if they bundle up. Probably.

— THE FOG remains blocking the paths in the forest beginning a few dozen yards past the treeline, urging residents to stay huddled within the town proper, and it also now blocks the western section of town, beginning just past Hill Lane, before where residents know the chasm in the earth to be between Hill and Stine Road. Venturing into the fog blocking these areas is ill-advised.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue. Castiel and Sam Winchester have vanished, and Dean Winchester has not returned with the others after his death during the Hunt.

— THE GRAVEYARD has now seen around a dozen burials, both below and above ground. With the weather warming, though, something may need to be done about the handful of temporary graves aboveground...

— ALCOHOL has returned to Mathias! A small stock of beer and cheap wine may be found at the General Store, and some homes may have a small store of alcohol in the fridge or pantry. The Grey Gull has also been restocked with its lower-end offerings of a variety of alcohol types. Alcohol does not replenish in the same way as food.

— THE GREY GULL has been cleaned up and stocked with moonshine. Along with the newly restocked usual offerings, the place almost seems like an actual bar again.

— THE GENERAL STORE is in a bit of a state following the brutal slaughter of two residents during the Hunt. Cleanup on aisle 3, anyone?

OOC NOTES

— FOOD is now being mysteriously restocked as per usual, including inside homes and at the General Store. Alcohol is not being restocked. Use those rationing skills, friends.

— REWARD REDEPEMPTION is back and will soon have a new option for anyone looking to spend big AP and learn a bit more of the lore of the town.

— MADNESSES due to the Hunt have been earned by Klaus Hargreeves, Ellie, and Malcolm Bright and may now be claimed. Players may also claim additional sanity loss from the aftermath of the Hunt; only losses from the Hunt itself have been deducted from totals thus far.

— SANITY REGAIN is now available! Players will submit a form with some details of the progress their character has made and the mod will review and decide on the numbers of points that will be regained.

— MOD STATUS The usual reminder that it's mostly just Amy steering this ship for now, so things will probably be pretty slow for a while. Apologies in advance, and please don't feel shy about pinging me if you're stuck waiting for something.

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With Doc taking his leave some ten minutes earlier, Bucky was still there shovelling dirt into the hole where they buried Raylan's remains. When he was done, he planned to head back to the boarding house, shower and head to the Gull where he would get some breakfast.

But, he stops after hearing Malcolm and glances between the two graves before looking at the man he recognizes from the night before.

"Burying them," Bucky answers without being flippant. "They had to be before it got any warmer outside."

“Doc said he was going to do it,” Malcolm said soberly, looking down into the hole. He’d seemed to want to take care of it himself, but Malcolm swung by to check on how he was doing. “We always take care of our people.” He glanced up at Bucky. “And anyone who doesn’t have anyone to look after them.”

Bucky stops what he's doing and looks at Malcolm. No, he didn't expect the guy to like him very much after what had happened the night before. He narrows his eyes. How old was this guy mentally?

"Doc came and helped," he said after the first part. "And Neal is my friend. I buried Max the morning I found her."

He didn't just dig one grave, he dug nine holes in total the morning after the Hunt.

Sometimes thirty-two. Sometimes ten. CPTSD was like that.

"This was our third round since we got here," he told Bucky matter-of-factly. He glanced around. "Where's Doc now?"

No truer words. Malcolm might come to find out that he's not the only one affected.

"Really? I've been here for over an hour and this is the first time I've seen you. He headed his way after we finished up."

Malcolm closed his eyes for a second, then looked at Bucky.

“Not our third time today,” he clarified. “Our third time finding friends’ corpses and burying them. The first was... about three weeks ago? They were smothered by the fog.” He tilted his head towards the older graves in a tidy row with makeshift wooden markers. “John Constantine. Five. Claire Novak. Phil Coulson. Then, when Neal arrived, he found a girl we knew seemingly frozen to death in a snowbank.” Malcolm gestured to the third, older pile of rocks. “Her name was Rey.” He looked down into the hole. “Then the other day. Raylan Givens, Neal Caffrey, Negan.” He looked at Bucky. “Negan isn’t here; he said we had to burn his body, so we did.”

That was a lot of names. Bucky's eyes follow, moving to each of the graves as Malcolm points them out and names off of the people in them. He has never heard of any of these people beyond recognizing most of them from messages on the bulletin board.

"Okay," Bucky replies, squinting a little in uncertainty. "So, what do you want me to do? They're already in the ground."

But he isn't exactly done yet. Without knowing who Rey even was, he suspected she died during the Hunt. So he was going to bury her, too.

Malcolm shook his head and held up his hands. “It’s fine. You said Doc allowed it. That’s fine. Continue.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets so the larger man couldn’t see the shaking or the fidgeting.

“I just wanted you to understand what you’re touching. And what it means.”

Bucky stares at him.

"What makes you think that I don't understand?" he asks, rather quietly, wondering if Malcolm knows something about him. How? Bucky isn't sure, but it was an odd thing to say to a person.

Malcolm looked at him oddly.

"Because you weren't here when most of it happened," he explained deliberately, gesturing around the little makeshift cemetery. A beat. "Or did Doc tell you about it all?"

"He told me how he knew Neal and Raylan," Bucky says, barely shaking his head. "But I don't think that's what you meant. You said you wanted me to understand what I was touching and what it means. As if I don't know the value of life."

He really shouldn't be talking like this, not after everything he's done and all the lives he has taken. Only he knows enough now to recognize that he was forced to do it. Bucky had no choice. Yet, he still holds himself responsible.

"No. I meant the sense of community here and why we feel responsible for looking after our own," Malcolm told him. He paused. "But it's interesting that your mind went there," he mused. "Any particular reason?"

Bucky felt trapped again and his eyes dart off down the way, towards the boarding house where he suddenly wanted to be. The way Malcolm is looking at him is... unnerving.

He glances back at the other man then completely focuses on putting the last few heaps of dirt, before moving physically away from Malcolm to start on the woman he called Rey.

"No," he answers firmly, though that was anything but the truth. "That's the way it sounded. That's the way I took it."

That wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t entirely the truth either.

But whatever the truth was, it was making Bucky uncomfortable.

“I’ll try to be clearer going forward,” Malcolm told him. “Anyway, I think it’s important to know their names. Everyone who died in the fog came back, except one.” He pointed down towards the end of the older row. “Her name was Jill. I never met her while she was alive. At the same time, your friend Daisy disappeared. No body. No trace. Showed back up a little while later.”

His expression is one of gratitude, even if only slightly so.

Bucky can't help but think how ironic it is to hear someone go on about the importance of knowing the names of the fallen that had died there. It was uncanny, albeit an interesting parallel since he had taken so many lives and remembered all their names, too.

But his attention quickly goes back to Malcolm when he mentions Daisy.

"Daisy went into the fog? How long was a little while later?"

Malcolm shrugs expansively.

“I didn’t know her but Doc and Phil were looking for her. I think maybe a week?” he suggests. “Phil’s gone now but Doc might know better.”

037-040 » the reason for time

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